Jinder Mahal On Not Liking Anti-USA Promo At First, What It Was Originally, Relationship With Vince

Recently on Talk Is Jericho, WWE legend and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho welcomed the number one contender to the WWE Championship, Jinder Mahal, to 'The Pod Of Thunder And Rock & Roll'. Among many other things, Mahal talked about WWE Chairman Vince McMahon changing his post-Six-Pack Challenge match promo as well as his relationship with McMahon.

According to Mahal, the promo he cut following his Number One Contender Six-Pack Challenge victory on WWE SmackDown Live was not the original. Rather than playing up the old 'evil foreigner' pro wrestling trope, the original promo called for 'The New American Dream' to throw shade the way of the WWE Universe in true heel fashion by pointing out that the fans did not get behind his peace-loving persona.

"He had rewritten my promo. The original promo was something totally different, so when I finished calling the match, one of the writers was like, 'hey, Vince changed your promo.' I was like, 'okay, bring it to me. Please bring it to me.' So they [brought] it to me and I had read the American comment and I was like, 'ah, I like the old promo better.' Like, it was like something like, 'I tried being peaceful, but nobody was listening. But now I have all you guys', everyone's, attention. I beat five of SmackDown's very best and I did it all alone.' Something like that. It was just like a regular heel promo, but the new one was like, 'you Americans this and that.' And I was like, 'argh, man, I don't think we should go [there]. Like, but I'm like, 'but whatever. Vince wrote it. It's okay.' But I did it and the reaction I got, I was like, 'oh man, Vince is a genius!' He knows exactly what's going to draw the most heat."

During the interview, Mahal admitted that he used to shy away from McMahon backstage, but now 'The Maharaja' has a good relationship with WWE's top man.

"I've become closer with Vince. It was weird, during my first run, and even when I was on 3MB, I would kind of like avoid Vince. Not avoid him, but he's intimidating. Now, I have like a good relationship with him."

Mahal went on to call McMahon an "evil genius".

"It's weird. He's like an evil genius. Is there anyone who has watched more [pro] wrestling than Vince McMahon?" Mahal added, "Vince knows what he's doing."

If you want to hear the podcast, listen to… it. If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.